Bible Study by Dena Stevens for July 3, 2013

SoVaNow.com / July 05, 2013

Ezekiel, Chapter 30

This chapter is written to Egypt and her allies. The Egyptians are descendants of Abraham through Hagar, Sarah’s Egyptian handmaiden, and God loves those people, too. The purpose of this judgment is that they will recognize Him as God. He wants them to love Him, as well.

Ezek. 30:1 “The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying,” (2) “Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God: Howl ye, woe worth the day!” Or, ‘Woe be to the day!’ God is saying through Ezekiel: ‘Woe to them when the Second Advent occurs, because this is the time their power will be judged and broken.

Ezek. 30:3 “For the day is near, even the day of the Lord is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.” ‘The day of the Lord’ is the day Christ returns to earth to reign during the Millennium. The word ‘heathen’ means ‘nations’. Of every nation there have been ‘the saved’ and ‘the unsaved’, and this is speaking of those who for different reasons never had a chance to know about Christ while they were in the flesh. This will be their ‘time’, when they go into the Millennium for teaching and testing. Our loving God wants all of His children to have a chance for salvation, and He will not judge them to hell until they have that chance. Nor will they be allowed into the Eternity until they have proven themselves worthy. There are several examples that could be mentioned—what about children born with mental handicaps who do not have the capacity to fully understand the plan of salvation. Would God send them to hell? Absolutely not. They are innocent. The God I serve certainly loves those little ones and He wants those souls back with Him in the Eternity. Throughout the ages, there have been people with the ability to understand, but who never had to opportunity to hear about Christ. And, there are those who were raised in a culture that denied the deity of Christ, teaching that he was ‘a prophet’. Most of them have never had the chance to make their own decision to follow Christ. It’s up to them, as it is for the rest of us, to choose who they will follow: Christ or Satan. They will get their chance in the Millennium. This will not be ‘a second chance’ because some people will never have a ‘first chance’ until that time. A person may have many chances to accept Christ while they are alive. But there are no more chances for that person to make the decision for Christ after they die. It’s only for the ones who never had a chance to know Christ while in the flesh that receive their first chance there for salvation.

Ezek. 30:4 “And the sword shall come upon Egypt, and great pain shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt, and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall be broken down.” These next verses are given in a spiritual sense.

Ezek. 30:5 “Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the mingled people”, (mixed multitude; the allies of Babylon) “and Chub,” (a place in Ethiopia) “and the men of the land that is in league,” (all her allies) “shall fall with them by the sword.” What is this ‘sword’? In previous chapters we read about Satan’s sword, but God also has a ‘sword’: it’s the Word; the Truth, and it’s God’s two-edged sword that will come forth with power and authority.